“Stories never really end… even if the books like to pretend they do. Stories always go on. They don't end on the last page, any more than they begin on the first page.”

Writers on Writing interview (1986)

Rex Stout, page 246
Invitation to Learning

Source: This Lullaby

Source: Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium

Interview with Don Swaim (1986)
Interview with Don Swaim (1986)

Friend of My Youth (2017)

That afternoon he'd bought Bird the largest bag of lemon drops he could find.
"He gives her candy," she had said, remembering too.
Source: Water Street (2006), Epilogue, p. 164 (closing words); reference to quote from Chapter 11

Variant: I always read the last page of a book first so that if I die before I finish I'll know how it turned out.
Source: When Harry Met Sally